My Guest Post at Hebrews 12 Endurance

Last month I was part of a thankfulness series on the blog of Hebrews 12 Endurance. It was a great month! I hope you were able to catch some of the awesome posts by a variety of bloggers. In case you missed it, I would like to share my post here with you!

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I'm Thankful for those who Lifted me Up – Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

When we are so busy being mom, raising little ones, giving of ourselves daily, how do we fit in our own spiritual needs?

For a long time I felt like I was practically cut off from the church body. My Sunday mornings were spent sitting in the nursery, or trying to hear the sermon from the hallway. It just wasn't the same. Thankfully, someone saw my need and threw me a lifeline.

That someone was my dad.

With his help, I grew deeper in my faith than ever before. I have three sisters, and all of us were raised with nightly Bible stories and action songs while we jumped around in our PJs. As we grew older, we had family Bible time around the kitchen table. We prayed together, sang hymns, even shared the Lord's Supper as a family. My dad was the one who baptized me in the little pool at the church when I was twelve. My parents are the greatest spiritual influence I ever had, far beyond any preacher, youth pastor, camp counselor or friend. I know now the utter blessing of having Christian parents, and for them I am truly thankful.

Now I am a mom of four: three sons and my youngest, a daughter.

My daughter is very determined. She made up her mind somewhere along the line that mommy, and only mommy, could hold her during church. She loved to go to the nursery, so long as I was there too. I did enjoy visiting with the nursery volunteers and other moms, but I really wanted to be in the service. My husband tried to stay with her in the nursery to give me a chance to catch a full sermon. She wouldn't have it. So it became the norm. The kids would have their classes, my husband would listen to the sermon so he could share it with me afterwards, and I would sit and play with a room full of cute babies. (An upside to every downside!)

So how did my dad, my spiritual mentor, lift me up when I couldn't plug into church the way I longed for? Read the rest of the post here!